Building Great

Teams
Agile 2011
Salt Lake City,UT

Don Gray

Tuning People, Processes and

Projects to Power Results

http://www.donaldegray.com don@donaldegray.com Twitter: @donaldegray

Building Great Teams Agile 2011

Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model

Stage Question Behavior when unresolved

Orientation WHY am I Confusion about what the team is supposed to do

here? Confusion about how to contribute
Purpose Checkout
Team Identity Focus on less ambiguous work
Membership
Tentativeness
Trying to agree on purpose
Dealing with team members' reluctance
Questioning if what the team is doing is what the org.
needs them to do.

Fear and anxiety

Doubt possibility of success
Paralysis

Trust WHO are Caution

Building you? Hesitation to rely on others
Take care of me first
Mutual Regard
Forthrightness Others aren't trustworthy or reliable
Reliability Assume others don't have best interests at heart
Distrust motives

What people think and feel doesn't match what they say
People don't know where they stand with each other

Goal WHAT are Apathy

Clarification we doing? Low Energy
Lethargy
Explicit Do as little as possible
Assumptions
Clear Goals Suspect others don't know what they're doing
Shared Vision Questions decisions or call for action
Question the wisdom of the goal and the people who se
the goal

Competition
Nitpicking
Challenging authority

Don Gray 2011 www.donaldegray.com don@donaldegray.com @donaldegray

Building Great Teams Agile 2011

Commitment HOW will Disown responsibility for what the team is doing
we do it? Leave decisions to team lead or select members
Know what and "Just tell me what to do"
Know Who Take responsibility for overall tasks but no the overall
Allocated results
Resources
Decisions Made Resistance
Devil's Advocate
Questioning
Opposing
Complaining

Implement- WHO People are not sure what to do, or when, or how
ation does Duplicate effort
WHAT, Things fall through the cracks
Clear processes WHEN, Contradictions
Alignment WHERE? Reinventing
Discipline Redoing

Activities clash
Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing
New information is not communicated

Missed goals

High WOW Overload

Performance Over focus on team w/o regard to reason for being

Spontaneous Interests Change

interaction Disappointment when performance isn't sustained
Synergy
Surpassing
results

Renewal Why Boredom

continue? Going through the motions
Recognition
change Mastery Burnout
Staying Power

Courtesy of Esther Derby

Don Gray 2011 www.donaldegray.com don@donaldegray.com @donaldegray

Building Great Teams Agile 2011

Team Basics

• 5 - 9 members
• Stable membership
• Shared history
• Compelling work goal
• Interdependent work
From “The Wisdom of Teams”, Katenzback and Smith, Harper 2003, ISBN
978-006052201 pp 43 - 64
• Cross functional
• Self Organizing

Sources of Conflict

Structure

Missing or Values
Misinterpreted
Communication
Preferences
Hardened
Positions Past History

Task Interpersonal

Thomas-Conflict Mode

Don Gray 2011 www.donaldegray.com don@donaldegray.com @donaldegray

Building Great Teams Agile 2011

Kantor Four Player Model

Mover
Direction

Mirror Decision Supporter

Perspective Completion

Challenger
Correction

Don Gray 2011 www.donaldegray.com don@donaldegray.com @donaldegray

Building Great Teams Agile 2011

Debrief Questions
What did you notice during
the exercise?

Have you seen anything

like this at work?

Where were you

challenged?

What surprised you

about the interactions?

How does this change

what you understand
about teams?

What one thing will you

do different when you get
back to your team?

Don Gray 2011 www.donaldegray.com don@donaldegray.com @donaldegray